Beagles!

While I have major issues with dog breeding (insofar as I find it detrimental to the health and well being of dogs), I confess there's something damn adorable about the pups in the Westminster dog show. While I assert that the world's most famous beagle, Snoopy, can't hold a candle to my two mixed-up mutts, I have to admit that this year's winning pooch, Uno the beagle, racks up some major cute points.

According to his handler, "He's a people's dog, a merry little hound." A merry little hound! I may actually be dying from preciousitis.



See?

A brief aside — on his road to victory Uno apparently beat out not one but two favored-to-win poodles. Having met several poodles, I can't say I'm surprised.

The Show Must Go (Back) On

Now that the writers strike is all but over (with some pretty solid gains for the creative community in new media!), I've been taking stock of which of my drugs shows will actually be coming back this year.

The good news for me is that Lost, Supernatural and The Office will all be back this season (albeit with somewhat truncated orders). The bad news is that Chuck and Heroes probably won't be returning until the late summer or early fall.

Curious about your shows? (You people have shows, right? Right?) Go here to ascertain their fates.

Oh, and I guess that award whatever thing is still happening. Who wants to put money on Chloe Sevigny showing up dressed in a gigantic woolen neon pink body sock?

Five Reasons to Love Summer Glau

Summer Glau is currently playing the so-called terminatrix in the new series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and she is, in a word, awesome. Here is why:

1. Her character, Cameron, is basically a hotter (and female-r) version of Data from Star Trek, which Glau absolutely has the chops to bring off.

2. Her presence on my TV screen makes it marginally easier to bear the fact that Firefly is still, tragically, cancelled.

3. As a classically trained ballerina, she actually does all of her own fight scenes, including those crazy high overhead kicks.

4. She can go from bot to bad ass in 2.5 seconds. In heels.

5. And, finally, she doesn't seem to harbor any ambitions towards running my state.

An Evening in Movements

An evening at the La Jolla Symphony last night offered a fascinating cross-section of the denizens of San Diego:

Directly in front of me sat two sparsely-washed college students sporting matching yarn beanies (and matching earnest attention to the music).

Clockwise, to my right, sat a 60-something-year-old Asian man who spent the entire show beating out the melody on his shoe with his fingers.

Behind me was a woman in a business suit whose tap-tap-tapping into her cell phone keypad let up only during intermission, when she pulled out her laptop and, I don't know, traded futures or something.

And lastly, to my left, sat my husband, who spent the entire post-intermission portion of the event attempting to remove a chocolate chip cookie from its wax paper wrapping without making any noise.

Oh, and the music was pretty awesome too.

Clinton's Three R's: Reading, 'Riting and Revisionist History

Earlier this week MSNBC commentator David Shuster made the following remark regarding Chelsea Clinton's role in her mother's campaign: "Doesn't it seem as if Chelsea is sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?"

As one might expect, this bizarre portrait of Chelsea Clinton as some sort of superdelegate streetwalker resulted in Shuster's suspension from the network. Well and good.

Slightly more perplexing was Hillary Clinton's response to Shuster's statement: "I am accustomed to criticism, certainly from MSNBC. I know that it goes with the territory. However, I became Chelsea's mother long before I ran for any office and I will always be a mom first and a public official second."

Thing is, Chelsea is 27 years old. Now, I'm no math teacher, but I do teach history, and my study of recent history indicates that Hillary Clinton's favorite number is 35 — as in, 35 years of political experience, the fundamental rationale for her ostensible superiority as a candidate. This, I believe, is what one might call "having it both ways" — perhaps not that big of a deal, but for the fact that she's been fiercely campaigning to paint her remaining opponent as some sort of bobble-head neophyte to her wizened elder statesman.

Yet again, we are presented with a clear case of Clinton refashioning her presentation of reality to suit her current needs. Forgive me for feeling a bit nauseous.

Putting the "Aw" in Awesome

Today in Florida a team of firefighters responded to a fire, extinguished it, and then discovered two dogs who had suffered near fatal levels of smoke inhalation. They then performed CPR on both dogs, successfully reviving them.




I really love firefighters.

Another Amusing Assertion

Yesterday I posted a fabulous quote from Faux News Network CEO Roger Ailes, proving once and for all that his reporters are in fact self-proclaimed jihadists. Today I found one nearly as fabulous from Bill Clinton:

"We are very frustrated because we have a Supreme Court that seems determined to say that the wealthier have more right to free speech than the rest of us. For example, they say you couldn’t stop me from spending all the money I’ve saved over the last five years on Hillary's campaign if I wanted to, even though it would clearly violate the spirit of campaign finance reform." — Bill Clinton, December 24, 2007

Why is this funny? I mean, he's right! Well. Perhaps someone ought to remind him of that, given that Hillary Clinton revealed today that she had given 5 million dollars of the Clinton family's personal wealth to her campaign late last month.

Freudian Much?

Best. Quote. Ever.

"The candidates that can't face Fox, can't face Al Qaeda." — Roger Ailes, CEO of the Faux News Network

This gem was in reference to the Democrats' refusal to participate in a Faux News debate back in April (probably because they had recently broadcast the "story" that Obama is a militant Muslim, which he's, you know, not).

Did you see what Ailes did there? He just compared his own network to Al Qaeda! He's calling his own "reporters" as ferocious an enemy as terrorists! Seriously, this seems like something you'd find in The Onion.

Accuracy Schmaccuracy

Today I learned a fun fact from John Kerry: Thomas Jefferson was only 33 years old when he "penned those words, we hold these truths to be self evident, into the Constitution." Now, I take his point — if I've written something that quotable by the time I'm 33, I'll feel like I have a laurel or two to fluff up my pillow. But as a history teacher, I feel duty-bound to point out that Jefferson didn't so much "pen those words into the Constitution" as pen them into the Declaration of Independence.

It's okay, Senator Kerry. Bill O'Reilly made the exact same mistake just a couple of months back. The only difference is that he got called on it on his own show by an elementary school student.

This is why I get my news from the BBC**.

** And now your Moment of Zen: According to a recent study, more than half of British teens believe that Sherlock Holmes actually existed. Moreover, roughly a quarter believe that Winston Churchill was fictional.

Maybe they thought they were being asked if he was fissional? Like, with the atomic — yeah, no.

As will.i.am. Goes, So Goes the Nation?

Golly, but this is a mighty fine piece of propaganda:



Does anyone else have a strange urge to head to the lobby and purchase a large Coke and some popcorn?